


Rose And Lion

by melliyna



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Arthurian, Gen, POV Female Character, Platonic Soulmates, Post Reichenbach, Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-16
Updated: 2012-03-18
Packaged: 2017-11-02 00:53:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/363216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melliyna/pseuds/melliyna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Irene had an end game, beyond the phone. Written for a prompt from my future fannish playgroup buddy with many <3s. The opening quote is from Marion Zimmer Bradley's <i>Mists Of Avalon</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [toastpiercer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/toastpiercer/gifts).



_“A priestess of Avalon does not lie. But I am cast out of Avalon, and for this, and unless it is all to be for nothing, I must lie, and lie well and quickly”_

Irene does not stay to watch the fall, though she knew it would come. But she'd also seen what Moriarty had never noticed, never grasped. That great heart, indeed. She smiles, escapes and finds herself on the other side of the world, blending in to the sun and the crowds and keeping half an eye on the news.

She'd seen - seen the way he looked at John, the affection for Mrs Hudson, for the lovely Inspector Lestrade and his daughter, even for Molly. Irene had seen and Moriarty had not, because to him he and Sherlock are entirely the same except Sherlock has sentimentality. What he never knew, Irene thinks was that the great detective might have a great heart but his vengeance and defence of those he loved was deep and long.

Sherlock Holmes was never one of them. He would do what he must to allow them to remain alive, even as it broke his heart and she'd known it from the first moment he'd looked at John in her presence. After that it was easy enough to play the long game, to come out alive. 

Sherlock never deduced her long game, after all.


	2. Measure Of A Man

_And in the passions that they bared  
In pledges won and secrets shared  
They'd stand together in what destiny would bring_

John Watson does the things you might be supposed to do, when occupying your life. He makes tea and goes to work and looks in on Mrs Hudson and knows, in the end that he's not fooling anyone but he's _keeping on_. And even if his friends know it they don't mention the way John Watson still expects Sherlock to walk through the door, just as always. There's always a strain of violin music John cannot quite hear or an odd shape in his fridge that isn't an experiment after all.

He actually misses the heads in the fridge. 

People, people who didn't know Sherlock look at him oddly - though no one tends to ask. Donovan and Anderson can't meet his eyes and Dimmock? Dimmock tries but he's not Greg. Greg who wasn't technically on suspension but was because Scotland Yard had no idea what to do with him after they'd found Sherlock had been right. And Lestrade had backed it up with evidence and the fine, boring detail that makes up court cases. He'd soothed tempers and generally pulled Sherlock's brilliance in to a shape that was useful in court. 

Somehow John thinks, the poison of Moriarty was worse because Greg Lestrade thought John should be angry with him. So he'd made it as easy for John as possible - he'd left after doing all he could to make sure Sherlock was vindicated, that John could consult with Dimmock if he wanted and generally being Greg in his aggravatingly kind way. John consults (he's technically a police surgeon at this stage, at least informally) and it helps, keeping this part of Sherlock in his mind through deductions. 

John Watson knows he shouldn't but he's got Greg's new number. For when Sherlock returns, he's going to need his Detective Inspector. Their Detective Inspector.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The quote at the beginning is from the Heather Dale song _Lady of the Lake_ \- the title of the chapter also comes from a Heather Dale song - the full lyric is _The measure of a man/Stands or falls with what he leaves behind_. The particular version of the Lady of the Lake I am using here is the wise lady who aids Arthur and Merlin, who enchanted Excalibur and who shelters Arthur in Avalon at the end.


End file.
